Lessons for All GM Car Crash Victims From The Candice Anderson Story
This week, Professor Jonathan Turley wrote about a Texas woman who had been driving a GM car (a 2004 Saturn Ion) when she was in a fatal car crash. In the aftermath of that traffic accident, this driver was arrested and charged with a crime — and she actually ended up pleading guilty to manslaughter because of the fatal crash.
This all happened a decade ago – back in 2004.
In the car accident, Candice Anderson was arrested and charged with the death of Mikale Erickson, her fiance, when her Saturn Ion went out of control and crashed, throwing Anderson through the windshield and killing her passenger, fiance Mikale, instantly. (The airbags didn’t work.)
The police couldn’t find any reason for this tragedy: Candice wasn’t drinking, she wasn’t on drugs, there wasn’t a road hazard, she wasn’t on the phone. Still, they pointed the finger at her and local prosecutors went after her as the driver of the only car in the crash. She ended up taking a plea bargain where she ended up with a criminal record and 5 years felony probation.
Driver Sues GM For Saturn Ion Product Defect: Bad Ignition Switch
Now, Candice Anderson knows what caused that crash: her Saturn Ion is one of the models with a faulty ignition switch that can cause the car to disable the airbags along with locking the steering wheel so the driver can’t turn the wheels as well as turning off the motor and jamming up the brakes.
She has sued General Motors for what happened to her back in November 2004, and one can only assume that her fiance’s family will follow suit with their own wrongful death case. Once she gets that GM judgment in hand, then Ms. Anderson will be able to go into the criminal courts and clear her name and the public records for that felony charge.
Professor Turley points out that GM will probably try and escape liability here through the bankruptcy courts. He also points out that when this crash happened, in November 2014, the people at General Motors KNEW about this ignition switch product defect and kept quiet about it.
Think about that — Candice Anderson was seriously hurt, her fiance Mikale Erickson died, and GM not only knew this could happen, but after this crash they let this woman get arrested, charged, and sentenced to a manslaughter charge rather than come forward and explain that the car’s ignition switch had caused the whole thing.
Here’s the lesson: It was Mikale Erickson’s mother who figured out that the 2004 Saturn Ion (a new car back at the time of the crash, maybe it still had that new car smell) was to blame for her son’s death and for her almost-daughter-in-law’s injuries and criminal injustice.
If you or a loved one has been involved in a car crash or traffic accident in the past decade or so, then you need to investigate the vehicles involved to determine if a GM Recall vehicle was involved. Just like Candice Anderson, maybe your loved one took the blame for something that was really a defective product and that is a wrong that needs to be righted.
Other families across the country are doing this: researching the recall records and comparing them to accident histories to learn the real reason that they have lost a loved one or have suffered serious injuries in a GM car related accident.
This is what products liability personal injury law is all about — justice against companies that let defective products go out into the marketplace because they put profits over people.
For more on this GM Recall Crisis, including details on what cars are involved in the current recalls, see our earlier coverage:
- GM Recalls Millions of GM Cars and SUVs: Congress Is Investigating while Justice Department Begins Criminal Investigation – Is Your GM Car Dangerous?
- GM Recall: GM Ignition Switch Dangers Grow – Moves to Stop People from Driving these Cars, Get Victims’ Claims Recognized
- RECALLS JUST KEEP HAPPENING: CAR MAKERS LIKE GENERAL MOTORS MAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MANY, MANY SERIOUS INJURIES AND DEATHS
